Oh, England, what have you done again! One step closer to making an early exit from the World Cup. On the other hand, Australia, as ruthless as they are known to be, especially in the World Cup tournament, becomes the first team to qualify for the semis.
England won the toss and decided to bowl first, despite knowing the two games they had lost in the tournament was due to batting second.
Australia started well, just like in all other matches. Both the openers added 123 runs for the first wicket; their 3rd hundred runs partnership of the tournament, one of the primary reasons for their success. David Warner (53) became the first batsman to reach 500 runs in this World Cup. But both the openers lost their wicket after reaching the milestones, Warner after reaching 500 runs, Finch after scoring his second hundred of the tournament.
The middle and lower order added a decent amount of runs, but yet not able to set a target of more than 300 runs for England. Australia finished at 285 for 7 in their 50 overs.
England had a terrible start to their innings, losing Vince on the second ball of the innings. Not one top-order batsman looked comfortable against Starc and Behrendorff. Soon they were struggling at 26 for 3 in 6 overs. The pressure started to mount to score quickly, and in the process, Jonny Bairstow too lost his wicket. Ben Stokes (89), added 71 runs with Jos Buttler for the 5th wicket, these two were England’s last hope to win the match. But Buttler was caught at deep square leg, and then Starc removed Stokes with a peach of a delivery, ending all the hopes for English fans. Both Starc and Behrendorff dominated the innings by taking 4 and five wickets respectively. Aaron Finch was declared Man of the Match for his fine hundred in the match.
Watch – Match Highlights
STATS
- Finch scored his second hundred of this tournament, only Ganguly (3 in 2003) has scored more centuries in a World Cup edition as captain.
- Warner became the 5th opener to score 500 or more runs in a World Cup tournament. Tendulkar reached the milestone twice (in 1996 & 2003), while Hayden (in 2007), Dilshan (in 2011) and Guptill (in 2015) are the other openers.
- Warner and Finch scored the third 100 run partnership in the tournament; they were only the 4th pair after de Silva/Gurusinha in 1996, Gilchrist/Hayden in 2007 and Dilshan/Sangakkara in 2015 to achieve this feat.
- Starc and Behrandorff took nine wickets, only for the first time in World Cup history two left-hand pacers took nine wickets against a team in a match.
